


Life has a weird way of getting to the happy ending

by Agentbadass



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Archie didnt know, F/M, Future AU, Veronica and Archie have a kid, Veronica never lived in riverdale, is it with each other??, slow burn kind of thing, they both end up in love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-24
Updated: 2018-05-01
Packaged: 2018-12-19 08:29:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 15,943
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11893896
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Agentbadass/pseuds/Agentbadass
Summary: She never planned to encounter Archie Andrews again. She never wanted to see him again. Of course, she runs into him in a club.AKA, the accidental kid AU with a twist.





	1. Chapter 1

"Come on! You deserve a night out V!"

One last time, Veronica looked at her dress in the mirror.  It was a nice dark blue dress, that hugged her in all the right places and made her look stunning. She paired it with black heels to match her raven hair. She looked breathtaking.

"Just a couple of drinks okay?" she agreed halfheartedly. She’s not really in the mood to go out, she’d much rather stay in and enjoy a night alone. She used to be into clubs, but that was when she was 17 and trying to irritate her mother. Betty was the good girl and waited until she was of age to go, so now she wants to go, not realising its old news to Veronica.

"Promise." Betty beams.

Veronica instantly knew that was a lie.

\----

Veronica had to admit, it was nice to have a night out. She was enjoying just being able to talk to Betty, minus her boyfriend. She is not a huge fan of Jughead, sure, he is nice, but Betty only talked to him whenever the three of them hung out. Veronica is not the type of girl to be a third wheel.

They were dancing on the dance floor, screaming out lyrics and just enjoying the moment. Flickers of colorful light were beating in time to the music, beating in time to Veronica's heart. Her drink was spilling over the edges of the glass, but she was too engrossed in the moment to care.

"Hey look! Hot redhead! Over there!" Betty pointed to over the dance floor to the back of a redhead. "You should talk to him"

The redhead was tall, with broad shoulders. He wore a loose shirt, and it made him look smaller. Approachable. Just the kind of guy she likes. He’s almost a carbon copy of the guys she come to clubs for.

"Maybe, if his face is cute." She teases Betty.

 

Betty shoots her a knowing look. Betty knows that she's going to talk to him, Betty knows nearly every move she's going to make. Perks of being best friends for 10 years right?

"I have to pee, go over there and talk to him!" Betty humours her.

She pushes her way over towards the redhead, downing her liquid courage on the way. She gets into an awkward position to his left, and she's about to push through the crowd of girls when she sees his face.

 

The air gets shoved out of her lungs.

 

At least it feels like that. She feels like she can’t breathe, the more she looks at him, the more she struggles to get air into her lungs. It's Archie Andrews, the famous singer. Last time she saw him, he was a brunette. That was nearly two years ago. His new red hair suits him. He's got the same cocky smile, and she feels like everything is closing in on her. Why is everything suddenly so overwhelming? Why is he suddenly here? She needs to get away. She turns to leave but the crowd pushes her even closer. She’s feeling claustrophobic. The walls of people keep coming closer. She tries to push back against them, get away from this, get away from him. They push her into him.

He grabs her arm and whispers "Hey cutie, wanna dance?"

He doesn't recognize her at all. She considers just leaving, but a fire ignites in her and she blurts out in a mad rage; "Really? You don't recognize me at all?"

After all the time she spent, calling him, sending letters, trying her hardest to let him know and he doesn’t even recognize her. Why did she even bother? Betty was right when she said he didn’t deserve it. He's got a dumbfounded look on his face and she pulls away from him to leave. His hands still on her arm and he tugs her back. It feels very similar to the  _don’t leave_ tug he gave her that night. The night that started it all.

"Huh?" He's still got a dumb look on his face. It just makes her so mad, seeing that look on his face. He’s searching her face for recognition, any sliver of who she is and why he should care. She wants to blurt it out, show him what’s what. She also wants to scream at him, yell, let all the anger she harbored out on him.

"Oh, for god’s sake, slept with me, didn't call back, and ignored all of my calls," she says pointedly, fire roaring inside her. The roaring encourages her to keep going.

"You're an idiot."

 

She adds that last part just to piss him off. Screw him. If he doesn’t remember her, why does she have to bother being nice? He will just forget her again.

He drags her off the dance floor into his VIP room. She’s regretting calling him an idiot now, she's worried he's mad. He’s got his jaw clenched so tight and a stiff grip on her. She wishes she could just disappear into the floor.  

"I don't need you telling the whole world that!" He scolds, tensing. "I have an image to keep!" He seems frustrated, and not interested in what he’s saying. He says it like a script that someone’s told him to say. _Rehearsed many times_.

"Wow, worried I could have wrecked that pretty boy image of yours?" She toys with him, seeing how far she can push him. If he wants to play games, she will play twice as hard.

"How much will it cost?" He sighs purposely avoiding her eyes when he says it. He's ashamed, but clearly not ashamed enough to stop himself from saying it. Who has him saying this? She almost feels bad for him, but he just tried to pay her off! Like she's some gold digger! Veronica Johnson is no gold digger. The fire roars again.

"Are you trying to pay me to be silent!" She seethes. "do you even know my name? Does my name even matter to you?"

"I remember your name, it starts with a V" he scratches his stubble as he thinks "is it, Valerie?"

She stares at him. He’s an idiot. Truly.

"Not Valerie then. Victoria?"

"Do I look like a queen?" Her voice is laced with sarcasm and venom. He tilts his head at her, how can he think she actually wants an answer? She stares holes into him again.  

"What is your name then?” He seems genuine, and the fire dampens a little, but it still roars.

"Veronica. Not that you care" She bites back, she doesn't care about his feelings. She doesn't want to be here, and she doesn't owe him the courtesy of being nice. If he gets his answers, he’ll let her leave faster. Or so she thinks.

 

"I was close!" He's so eager, like a child.

"Is that all? I won't ruin your stupid image alright?" She spits out. "I won't tell the world that you sleep with different girls each night, never call them and leave them knocked up!"

She turns on her heel sharply and strides towards the door. He’s got his answer, she doesn't owe him anymore. The further she gets away, the more the fire goes away.

"I am very careful about protection!" He yells at her, like that will redeem him.

That makes the fire come back. She turns on her heel again, and calmly says "How come I got pregnant then?" And strides right out the door. She bites her tongue to stop herself from saying anything more, insult or not, she shouldn't waste her breath on him.

Her eyes scan the club for Betty, finding her at the bar.

"We have to go now" she demands

"Why? We were having so much fun!"

"Remember the redhead you pointed out?" Betty nods and gives her an overdramatic wink. "Well, it was him."  

"Oh crap!" She jumps up and springs into action. "We can go right now, I'm so sorry I told you to go after him"

\--

They both push out onto the street, giggling and struggling to stand straight.

"I'll call an Uber" Betty struts off while Veronica leans against a wall to take off her shoes. Her heels were killing her, and she needed to breathe in a space where the walls didn’t feel like they were closing in on her. She can’t believe that out of all the clubs in New York, he was at this one. It's just her luck for this to happen.

The door opens again and Archie walks out.

"Veronica! I've been looking for you!" He yells down to her.

"I don't want to talk to you." She bites, all the pain and hurt spilling out.

"I only want to ask one question" He pleads.

"Okay. One question."

"Did you keep it?"


	2. Chapter 2

"Yes. Congrats Mr Andrews, you're a father"

 

With that, she slides into the Uber and leaves him dumbfounded on the curb.

 

\---

 Her apartment is not trashy, but it isn't fancy either. She can barely afford the two-bedroom apartment, but she does okay. When she first moved in, her dad treated her and bought her a bunch of fancy furniture for the apartment. She felt bad taking it, and she imagines she’d feel bad for wrecking it; but she doesn't have an ounce of care for that man anymore. And, how is she supposed to keep a white couch pristine with a one year old around? It's unrealistic.

She sleeps in one room, and the baby in the other. In reality, the baby probably sleeps more with her than in their actual room. Once upon a time, Betty stayed in there, but she moved out when Jughead came to NY. 

She's in the kitchen, feeding the baby in her high chair. Her mind's been on repeat since that night, wondering about all the choices she could have made. Should she have been nicer to Archie? He wasn’t being mean or anything, just a bit rude. Well, he did insult her, and imply that she's a gold digger. She needs to stop thinking about this, she gets all worked up and angry.

She's snapped out of her thoughts by her phone ringing. Putting down the bowl of peaches, she answers;

"Hello?"

"Is this Veronica?" They sound exasperated.

"Yes, who’s calling"

"Archie Andrews" Nope. She is not talking to him.

"Bye." She hangs up. She knows that it’s a bit mean, but thinking about him earlier got her mad. He’s been back in her life for 3 days and he’s already causing her stress.

The baby makes an attention seeking noise, and she’s back to paying attention to her.

"Sorry Bubba, you want some more peaches?"

She gets a squeal in reply. She scoops up some of the peaches on the little plastic spoon, and 'fly’s' it into the baby's mouth, making aeroplane sounds along the way. She manages to only get 3 more spoons into the baby before the phone rings again.

"Don't call me again Archie" She growls before even saying hello.

"I'm not Archie!?" Betty's voice exclaims. Whoops, she should’ve asked who it was before being rude. She’s lucky it was only Betty.

"Oh! Sorry Betty" She apologises, but she knows Betty doesn't care. Betty has had to deal with a way bitchier side of her.

"So, he called you" She teases, like Veronicas a five-year-old and it’s her first crush. 

"I hung up” She says bluntly, there’s no nice way of putting it.

"You're being a bit bitchy to him" Betty is blunt right back at her, but she does need to hear it.

"He deserves it” Just because Betty has a point, doesn't mean she must accept it.

"I know what he did to you was bad, like really terrible, but what will you tell her in the future? 'Sorry, you had a chance to meet him, but I hung up on him' It doesn't work v, she deserves to know him"

She can’t refute that point. That’s the sole reason she spent so many months trying to contact him. She knew from the moment she found out she was pregnant she was going to keep it. She also knew that she wanted them to know their father. She spent months sending him texts, letters, emails. She even tried to contact him through his manager, but all she got back was nothing.

Even now, she keeps a diary of anything to do with the baby so he can catch up. Originally it was to catch him up, but as time passed and the idea of him being a part of her life faded. It turned into something she could give the baby once she’s older.

"I know.” She does, but she can’t bring herself to do it. “But I can't let him waltz in after what he did" Another one of the 10,000 reasons she uses to validate her lie. The lie that he doesn't deserve to be in her life, when he hasn’t really done anything.

"Just think about it" Betty says in an all-knowing tone, she probably already knows that Veronicas going to call him. Veronica chooses to ignore the tone, and invites Betty around.

She then returns to her mission of trying to get the baby to finish the bowl of peaches.

"We keep distracted now, don't we?"

This time, they make it to the bottom of the bowl before the phone rings again. Veronica picks up the bowl and puts it in the sink, before the baby can grab it and make a mess. She grabs a toy from the bench and puts it in front of the baby, hoping that'll keep her occupied for however long she’s on the phone for.

"Hello?"

"It's uh, Archie again" He sounds nervous, which is fair, she did just hang up on him earlier.

"What do you want?" She doesn't mean it to come out so biting, she’s going to try make an effort with him.

"I was wondering if we could talk, you did kinda tell me that I was a father? I assume that you weren't lying" He’s apprehensive, afraid of saying the wrong thing and making it all collapse in.

"Sure"

"Okay great! I'm not sure when you're free, but I'll be in town for the next 2 weeks. Just uh, text me when you're free" It sounds like he didn’t think he’d get that far.

"Yep. Bye Archie"

She hangs up before he can reply. She has to keep him on his toes.

\---

"I brought Shrek!" Jughead announces as he’s stepping in the door.

"I told him not to! And I brought candy!" Betty mutters

“I’d rather it was Shrek than a Tarantino movie” The baby probably won’t remember whatever shitty kid’s movie they watch, but she feels that a Tarantino movie would make her a terrible parent.

"Speaking of, where is my God daughter?" Betty drops the candy in the kitchen and finding the baby in the living room gasps, "Hi baby!"

The baby lifts her head and smiles brightly. She loves Betty, and is always so smiley around her.

"Come over here and give your aunt a hug!"

The baby sticks her butt in the air, slowly straightening, and then toddles over to Betty. Betty picks her up, wrapping her in a hug and kissing her all over.

"Hey, don't forget me!" Jughead whines, lifting the baby from Betty's arms and settling her in his arms.

Jughead was Betty's boyfriend. They've been dating since they first met in college. 6 years later and all that's changed is that they live together, but they're endgame. Veronica's even been out twice with Jughead to help him pick rings. He hasn't found one yet, but she doesn't think it'll take much longer. Jughead is godfather, just not on paper. (Blame his and Betty's fight right when the baby was born)

He deposits the baby back into Betty's arms and frowns. "Little bug doesn't like me today"

"She just loves me better" Betty teases playfully.

He smiles bashfully, teasing back. "That's just something she tells herself little bug, don't worry"

"Ugh. Gross. Your domesticity is too much for me, I'm gonna make popcorn" Veronica slinks off to the kitchen to grab some snacks.

Jughead uses this as an opportunity to create the perfect blanket fort in the living room. You can’t have a movie night without a blanket fort! Jughead pushes all the toys out of the centre of the room and into their boxes. He goes down the hall and grabs armfuls of blankets, throwing them down on the floor. He gets to work, unfolding blankets all over the carpet, covering every square inch in blanket, and then carefully draping the remaining blankets across the furniture in the room. He steps back and admires his blanket fort. Pretty good, he thinks. He remembers that he needs pillows. He grabs enough pillows for everyone, 2 for Betty because she doesn't like many, 5 for Veronica who likes _soo_ many pillows, 3 for the baby to sleep on and 1 for him.

He has no idea why Veronica owns so many goddamn pillows.

Betty climbs into the fort with the baby, and he follows.

"Snacks incoming!" Veronica yells as she throws in several bags of candy, and then climbs into the fort with a bowl of popcorn.

Veronica doesn't remember Shrek from when she was a kid, but she wished she had watched it. The movie was good, and enjoyable even as an adult. It even passed Jugheads harsh critique.

Sometime during the movie, the baby fell asleep across his and Bettys laps, so he helps Veronica put her in the crib. In the meanwhile, Betty grabs a bottle of wine and three glasses. Jughead pops the cork, and pours out three glasses, much more full than they should be.

"I definitely needed this " Veronica says before drinking half the glass.

"Woah, slow down!" Betty exclaims, trying to grab the glass from Veronica

"If my baby daddy found my number and called me, I'd be drinking that much too" Jughead quipped. It earned him a pointed look from Betty.

"Did you call him back?" Betty asks, trying hard to make it sound like she's not dying to know the answer.

"He called me right after, and no, I didn't hang up on him" she leans back and sips more of her wine, soaking in the moment before she surprises them. "I told him we could talk about it"

"What!" Betty had been expecting Veronica to say nope smugly, not agree to meet with the guy. She had decided very firmly after the baby was born that he deserved no chances. After the months spent trying to contact him, she’d gotten fed up and said enough. "Are you actually going do it?"

"I was thinking about what you were saying, and he doesn't deserve to meet her, but she deserves to have a dad.” It wasn’t just a single thought. She’d been thinking about it all day. She can’t get it out of her head. “I was thinking about meeting him tomorrow, but I don't want to take her with me, will you look after her?" She looks at jughead. He works from home as a writer, and mostly just babysits for her.

"Sure, and you can call me if you want me to bring her or you need a way out" Veronica is so glad Betty found such a good man to be her boyfriend. Jughead came from a shitty past, and he tries so hard to make the future better. Veronicas really glad to have him as a friend (Not just because he babysits) "But, Ronnie, think about this a second. He's an incredibly famous singer who probably thinks you claim to have a child with him for money. He has claimed you wanted money before. I can't see any way this won't go badly"

"What will I tell her when she's older? How will I be able to tell her that her dad didn't want her, when I don't know for sure?"


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry for making you guys wait so long!!
> 
> lol not gonna pretend I'll start updating better cause we know I wont

The next morning, she texts Archie.

 _To Archie:_ If you really care about this, meet me at the 3rd street Starbucks, 2pm.

She also texts Betty.

 _To Nancy Drew:_  Can you look after her today? Around 2 for a couple of hours?

 _From Nancy Drew:_ Of course! Meeting him??? ;)

 _To Nancy Drew:_ Its not that kind of chance...

 _From Nancy Drew:_ Wear the gray sweater dress so he remembers how hot you are ;)  


She takes Betty’s advice and wears the gray dress. It's very flattering, but not overly tight. It’ll tease Archie just enough. She knows it's vain, but she wants Archie to know that she's still just as hot, probably hotter.  
  
When she gets to the starbucks he's already there, in a corner table with a cap pulled low on his head, on his phone. He must be trying to hide from fans.  
  
"Hey" she tries to say casually, shrugging off her coat.  
  
"Hey!" He perks up and looks at her  "I didn't know if you'd actually turn up"

He looks slightly disappointed as well, she figures it must be because he expected her to bring the baby.  
  
"I'm offended" she clutches her chest in mock hurt "I always keep my promises, unlike someone"  
  
He raises his hands in mock surrender.

"Alright I'll admit fault there.” He smiles goofily. “I’m glad you are giving me a chance”

“I haven’t decided on that yet” She mentally reminds herself that he hasn't really done anything wrong, and she needs to be nice. "So, What do you wanna know?"  
  
"You're sure it's mine?" She begins to roll her eyes. Maybe she shouldn't be nice. "I don't think you'd lie about it, but I just have to check."  
  
"Of course, for your 'image'" She remarks, putting finger quotes around image.  
  
“Well a few girls have told me over the years I got them pregnant but it turns out I didn’t. I have to be cautious.”  

She wonders what kind of shitty person would do that to him. Archie’s gullible sure, but he's sweet, almost innocent.  
"What, did the baby come out black?" She jokes, trying to lighten this feeling of seriousness between them.    
He scratches the back of his neck awkwardly.  "Once, yeah" 

She has to resist the urge to laugh at that, pretending to cough. Archie looks at her funny. She hopes her baby didn't get those genes.

"Well, I know I'm not lying, so what do I gotta do to prove it to you?" She says pointedly to recover from the fake cough.  
  
"Uhm, I didn't really think about that. I guess I'll just take your word for it, and later on get a DNA test or something."

There’s an awkward pause and she can see Archie’s brain whirring. She wonders if he actually knows what he wants from this meetup.

"Okay, tell me about the baby then”

Yeah, he really doesn't know what he wants from this. Maybe she should've brought the baby, at least then the cuteness could distract from this constant awkwardness.  
  
"So! You have a daughter, shes going to turn one in about three months. She is the cutest human on the planet” Veronica gushes. She will never miss a chance to talk about her baby. Honestly, she may have been a mistake but Veronica doesn't regret having her at all.  
  
"What's her name?" Archie leads  
  
"Oh! Right! Her name is Haylie Maddison Lodge"

Archie looks a bit deflated when she says that. He should’ve expected that it wouldn’t be his last name. He missed a whole year of the kids life, what did he expect?  
  
"That's a really pretty name” Archie smiles, he's basically complementing Veronica too. This should get him on her good side.  
  
“There isn’t much else to say about a one year old, she can walk, she has my-” She pauses to correct herself “well _our_ dark hair, she has a smile to light up the world. Anything else you want to know about her?”  
  
"She seems amazing. I can't wait to meet her." he scratches the back of his neck again, and Veronica notes that he does that a lot, and it's quite distracting, drawing her attention to his arms like that... 

You are here for your daughter Veronica, _focus._

“Look, I don’t want to be the bad guy, but you have to be prepared to be in her life before you meet her. You have to be in it 100% because Haylie deserves that. And if you don’t want to do that, I won’t hold it against you. You can walk right out of here now if that isn't your style.”

“I’m committed. 100%.” He stares right at her, assuring her that he is serious “ I can’t guarantee I’ll always be around, my job doesn't allow that. I just came off tour, so I will have time.”

Wow, he stunned her with that reply. She expected him to be flaky, maybe take a while to think about it. He seems really invested, and this is more than she ever hoped for.

“Okay, now that I know you are serious, do you want to come to my apartment with me now to meet her?” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come yell at me on tumblr! I might even send out some sneak peaks ;) 
> 
> https://agentbadass-carter.tumblr.com/


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so this chapter was a piece of work. I wanted to post it within 24 hours after that anon, but hours turned to days turned to weeks. Basically I just finished it now at 12.30am and im too tired to edit right now but I wanted to get the chapter out so.. here?

Veronica picks up her bag and coat.

“So, are we going or what?” 

Archies still sitting there, mouth open. “Uhhhh yeah”  
He awkwardly scrapes his chair loudly against the floor, turning a few heads. He stuffs his hat onto his head and grabs his coat. Veronica watches on in amusement.

“Always graceful Archie.” She teases. She dashes out the door before he can reply, shes still gotta keep him on his toes...

He jogs to catch up to her. She tries to walk determined, even though her mind is in a million different directions. Was she dumb to do this impulsively? Should she have gotten a background check- so many celebrities are into children? Was she actually just thinking that about sweet Archie, who couldn't even white lie? Would Haylie even like Archie? Shes quite a shy child... What about Betty, will she approve of her hasty decision?

_To Nancy Drew:_ I’m coming home with a red headed guest, be ready

_From Nancy Drew:_!!!!!

Veronica is so caught up in her thoughts it feels like they made it to the apartment in no time. She punches in the door passcode and her legs start to feel shaky.

She concentrates on calming in the elevator ride, and Archie stands next to her doing the same. Hes about to meet his actual daughter, and first impressions count don't they? He realises he's wearing what he calls a ‘douche hat’ and shoves it off his head so quickly it falls to the floor.

He quickly picks it up and glances over to Veronica, who looks to inside her own head to notice. Good. He doesn't want her to think her baby daddy is an idiot. Well, more of an idiot.

He makes a mental note to look up a better name than baby daddy too.

The elevator dings and both of them barely notice.

He doesn't know how to introduce himself to a baby! He can't play the fame card on his own daughter, that's just wrong. How about, ‘Hello, I’m Archie Andrews, nice to meet you’ Too formal. ‘Yo, its me, Archie’ Where did that come from? Just stick to the casual ‘Hi’ Archie, don't be an idiot.

“Archie?” Veronica asks. He realises that oh, they are standing right infront of her door. “Are you okay?”

He smiles softly. “I’m fine, just nervous”

“It’s hard to make a bad impression on a one year old, don’t worry. And if you really screw it up, Haylie loves anyone that gives her candy” She turns her key in the lock. “Anyways, its really Betty who you have to worry about, she isn’t your biggest fan..”

Shes already opened the door and taken him inside before he can even worry about that.

“We’re back!!” Veronica chirps, leading Archie down the small hallway.

Shes got quite a nice apartment, and it seems pretty large for New York. Archie vaguely remembers something about an industries, maybe she comes from money?

He follows her down a hall and left into what looks like a kitchen. Theres a blonde girl standing there, whose face drops into a scowl at the sight of him.

“She wasnt trouble for you?” The blonde girl puts a small pink bowl down on the bench.  
“Never is V”   
“Oh! Betty, this is Archie, Archie, this is Betty” Veronica says, disappearing behind Betty.

The blonde, Betty, holds out a hand. “Betty Cooper. Best friend of Veronica.”

He shakes her hand. 

“Archie Andrews. Baby daddy.”

Archie really needs to get a better name for it. 

“Hi baby, did you miss me today?” The baby makes some noises which Archie does not understand.  “Yeah, I missed you today! I brought someone special to meet you” Archie catches a glimpse of his daughter over Betty’s shoulder. This is it, he thinks, this is the moment you can't fuck up. 

Veronica lightly touches Betty on the shoulder, who catches Veronicas drift and leaves the kitchen.

This is the moment.

“Hi Haylie! I’m Archie!”

Haylie stares at him, judging whether or not she likes him. She eyes him up and down. She spots his red hair and immediately tries to jump in his arms.

“woah hayls, don't jump onto Archie!” veronica pulls haylie back into her arms.

“do you think she likes the hair?”

Veronica jolts forward to catch haylie as she tries to jump again.

“she's warmed up to you quite fast” veronica jokes “since she won't sit still, how about a crash course in holding a baby?”

Archie is very aware of how close veronica steps towards him. She leans haylie up against his chest.

“so basically just keep an arm under her, or make sure she's held up by you kinda. She's probably gonna wriggle around and just go with what feels natural.”

Veronica grabs his arm and puts it under haylie. Then she steps back and admires her work.

Archies standing awkwardly straight, trying to lean his chest back so haylie can rest on it, with his arm awkwardly flexed tight.

“relax Archie, you're more frigid than a 12 year old right now”

Archie kind of adjusts his arm to be looser, but he still looks incredibly uncomfortable.

Archie can't believe he's holding his real life daughter right now! This little human in his arms is half him! She's warm, and seems to like his hair.

“am I doing it okay? I'm not gonna hurt her am I?”

“You're fine. We can sit down in the lounge, it might make it easier for you, and I'm sure betty is dying to ask you a million and one questions anyways”

When Betty sees Archie, Haylie perched on his head, eating his hair, she bursts into laughter.

“It looks like shes eating fire” Betty remarks

Veronica whips out her phone to take a photo of haylie. She gently lifts Haylies face away from archies hair and removes the fest from her mouth.

“your hair is really soft, sorry you got baby slobber in it”

Haylie notices veronica and starts babbling. Veronica stands on her tiptoes and looks right into Haylies face.

“maaaaama!”

“I swear she's not as weird as she looks right now” Betty jokes “Veronica thinks that if she says mama to Haylie enough, Haylie will say it back, but I think Haylie should say betty first!”

“My votes in for dada” Archie jokes and the room shifts.

Wow, Veronica thinks. It's been 2 seconds and he's already claiming the dad title. He hasn't even changed a diaper yet or been up all night when Haylie’s screaming. He needs to stay in his place.

“in both your dreams ” she retorts, and it comes out a lot harsher than the joke she intended.

This accidental challenge is met with Betty and Archie both attempting to coach Haylie at the same time, getting louder and louder, until they were yelling. Since Betty was the one that could see Haylie getting overwhelmed, she bowed out first. Archie doesn't notice that Betty isn’t speaking anymore, but he lowers his voice.

“Dada! Cmon Haylie, say it!”

Haylie babbles back with a sound close to d.

“Daada!” Archie prompts again

“Da!” Haylie says.

“Oh my god!” Veronica squeals. The excitement of Haylie saying her first word covers the disappointment of it not being mama. “Did you hear that? She said her first word!”

“I don't think it really counts as a word V” Betty quips.

Veronica, used to Bettys sarcastic insults, remains unfazed and just says, “Where is my phone? I need to record this”

Veronica vaults over the couch in her excitement to get her phone. She grabs it off the bench and calmly walks back around the couch while she waits for the camera to load.

“Hayls, say it again”

And like an actor following their cues, Haylie said;

“Daaaa!”

“Is that one going on the infamous mommy blog or do you need a better take?” Betty jests

“Infamous mommy blog?” Archie asks.

“Veronica posts everything about Haylie to instagram and tries to show the world what a ‘perfect’ mom she is” Betty puts air quotes around perfect.

Archie figures this will be a good place to catch up on Haylies life when he leaves.

“Of course it’s going onto insta Betty, its a major milestone” Veronica says, hitting the post button.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you very much for reading that because its currently unedited. I will go back and edit it in the next few days.  
> I'm going to work on chapter 5 next week too so fingers crossed for no more writers block!  
> Comment on what you want to see in the next chapters!   
> Dont forget to yell at me on tumblr! 
> 
> https://agentbadass-carter.tumblr.com/


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this chapter in a different style, starting with a script and working outwards from that. I think it worked?

Veronica is the daughter of a well known businessman. Even before, she had a large following on Instagram. She was a pretty girl, posting about her times at great events and her perfect outfits. Who wouldn't want to follow her? Then she turned it into a mommy-blog, and amassed a much larger amount of followers. So, to say she blasted it to the world is an understatement. She pretty much blasted that video to gossip sites. 

However, Archie didn’t know this. He went home that day, unaware of the absoulte shitshow he was waking up to in the morning. 

Veronica woke up to 164 comments asking “Is that Archie andrews? Is that his kid?”, 20 tags from Archie fan pages, and Haylie screaming. Maybe the screaming should've been a sign it wasnt gonna be the best day... 

Archie woke up to loud banging on his door. His best friend, Reggie, was knocking and yelling his name. Archie grumbled and rolled out of bed. He grabbed his phone of the charger, put on a shirt, and opened the door. 

“Bro, why didn’t you tell me you had a kid? Or that you had a hot baby mama?” 

“What are you talking about?” 

“Haven’t you checked instagram?” 

Archie finally checks his phone at this point. He’s got 8 missed calls from his agent and a text, ‘Meeting at 9 to fix this mess’. Archie checks the time. Crap, it's 8:45 and the office is 20 minutes away. 

“Reg, I gotta go to the office, you wanna come?” Archie says, grabbing a jacket that was hanging on the coat rack.

“Yeah bro, lets go” 

Archie will never get used to people discussing him like he's property. These meetings with his managers always leaves him unsettled. 

“What if we say she isn’t Archie’s child? That the girl was looking for a payout?” 

“I’m not going to throw Veronica under the bus!” Archie’s not sure why he's getting so mad about the way they talk about Veronica, usually he just listens to what they have to say, his career is more important than anything. He worked hard to get here, and he isn't going to give it up for anything. 

“Remember what happened last time Archie?” 

“I can ask her to take down the video?” 

“The damage is already done Archie” 

First it was his image almost costing him his daughter, now it's his daughter almost costing him his image. 

“Can we fix my image without hurting her then?” 

Archie walks out of that meeting fuming. They want him to deny that Haylie is his publicly, and they want him to get photographed with his girlfriend at least 3 times this week. 

Speaking of his girlfriend, Sophia had been calling him all through that meeting. Reggie kept pointing it out to him and it was obnoxious. He'd here the buzzing of his phone, look out the glass, and Reggie was sitting there, holding up his phone with a smug grin. 

He's back at his apartment, trying to figure out how to solve this. Reggie keeps saying he should sue the condom company, which is really no help at all. The only remotely helpful thing he says is; 

“What’re you gonna do?” 

Archie puts his head in his hands. He's in an impossible situation. He still doesn't know for sure that Haylie is actually his genetics, but he could just feel it, ya know? And he doesn't want to fuck it up with his own daughter, especially not when what's in the balance is a music career hinged on how long preteens find him hot. He spent hours and hours committed to his music, when he could've been drinking with moose and Reggie. It feels like wasted opportunity now, when he's watching his future go down the drain. 

And Sophia, he likes her, and definitely wants to continue dating her, but it feels a little forced now that his agent refers to her as ‘good press’. Just the way humans were referred to in that meeting irked him. John's a great agent, but the way he referred to everyone as part of a product for his paycheck and it just rubbed him the wrong way. 

He doesn't know why he's getting so worked up about this, after all, he was never worried about using girls before, and he quite publicly said his thoughts on Sam when she claimed to have his kid. Is he going crazy? 

He's no closer to the answer than before, so all he can say is I don't know. 

“You should probably pacify your girlfriend first” 

Archie lifts his head up and stares at Reggie.“Thanks Reg, you’ve been so much help today!” 

“She's called you 14 times today bro, even I know ignoring her that many times is shit” 

Why does Reggie actually have a point? Hes supposed to be unhelpful. Archie's chain of thought is interrupted when his phone starts buzzing on the bench

“15 times” Reggie points out- good to know he's back to being unhelpful. 

He flops his arm over and yanks his phone off the table. He hits answer, holds up the phone to his head, and drops his head between his knees again.

“Hey babe” Archie casually says, waiting for the yelling to start. Sophia is great, but she has a tendency to yell before she listens. 

“Arch, I've called you 15 times!” So no yelling right off the bat, tread carefully Archie and hopefully you can avoid it altogether.

“I'm sorry, I was in a meeting” It's a shitty excuse, he knows “how about I come pick you up, and we can talk about it over lunch?” 

Hopefully, if she can see him, she won’t be as quick to shut him down. 

“Alright, be here in 15 then” 

That's outing number 1 down. 

“Okay bye Soph”

“Cya Archie”

Archie throws an apologetic look to Reggie, who nods back, and grabs the keys to his Audi. He's hoping that by bringing her favourite car, taking her to her favourite restaurant, he can pacify Sophia. After all, she is a very material girl. 

Sophia greets him coldly at the door, and sits closed off next to him in the passenger's seat. She quietly reminds him to get a seat by the window at the restaurant, and idly plays with her napkin, ripping bits off slowly. He watches her, making smaller and smaller pieces, until she cant hold it to rip it again.

He could offer explanations all he wants, but without knowing which particular part annoyed Sophia, it's like shouting into the void. The other 2 times they’ve had fights, he would start by explaining it to her- but she wouldn’t listen and it wouldn’t be what she's mad about. His head is swirling with thoughts, so he wants to get to the point with her. 

“Soph, talk to me please”

Sophia looks at him, and tucks the ripped pieces of napkin under itself. 

“Is the kid really yours?” 

“I'm pretty sure she is” 

Sophia goes quiet for a moment. 

“Of course you chose such a pretty girl, I don't hold a candle to her” 

Archie thinks sophia is crazy. Yes, Veronica is attractive, he knew that when he slept with her, but Sophia is attractive too. And, he’s dating Sophia, not Veronica. 

“Her beauty is nowhere close to yours Soph”

“Just be honest when you leave me for her, okay?” Sophia seems resigned, and it upsets him that she thinks this is such a definite. 

“I'm not going to leave you for her!”

Sophia looks down mutely. She types something on her phone, and then lifts it to show Archie. 

“Look at her, she has the perfect life. She's stunning, runs her own business, lives a lavish life like you, what more could you want? And god” She pauses, showing Archie a different photo. “She even looks perfect 9 months pregnant! How the fuck can I compete with her?” 

“You don't have to compete with her because I want you, not her. I had a one night stand with her 2 years ago, and I don't have any attraction to her at all now. You're who i want”

Was he lying to Sophia? Or was he trying to lie to himself?

Either way, it seems to work. Sophia seems relatively normal for the rest of lunch, and doesn't even say anything when Archie ditches her for Reggie. 

He heads straight to the gym with Reggie. He needs something to keep his mind off it, and Reggie wants to “get swole bro”. 

“You and Sophia made up right?” 

“Yeah Reg, we did” 

“Can I get veronica’s number then?” 

“No reg, you can’t” 

“Well if you aren't gonna tap that ass, why can’t I?” 

Archie thinks about this for a second, why can't Reggie talk to Veronica? Ignoring the weird feeling he gets when he thinks about another guy talking to Veronica, he can’t come up with a reason.

“Fine, but I’m going to ask her first” 

As soon as he gets back to his apartment, he brings up Veronica's contact. He paces, debating whether or not to call her. It's not weird right? It's totally normal to ask your kids mom if your best friend can have her number? 

Eventually, he just hits dial. 

“Hello?” Veronica's voice chirps. 

“Hey, Ronnie, it's Archie”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd love to hear your thoughts!


	6. Chapter 6

He regrets the nickname as soon as he says it. Why did he say it? He is a nickname kind of guy, but he's literally only seen Veronica 3 times in his life. 

“Ronnie? Sounds a bit like a man's name doesn't it?” 

“Yeah, Sorry, it just slipped out” 

“It's fine, so anyways, what's up?”

“oh! Yeah! So, my friend Reggie wants your number. He saw your Instagram, and apparently you're a ‘hottie’ so he wants your number. If you want, you can check out his Instagram or something before you decide? I think he's a pretty great guy but I have to say that cause I'm his wingman” 

“Woah, okay, okay. How about you text me his handle and I'll let you know.  You do know that's a thing right?” 

“ah, Sorry! But Yeah, thanks Veronica!”

“Oh, Archie?” She starts. “I’m very sorry about that video, I didn't realise what could happen” 

Archies taken a bit aback with her saying that. He didn’t really think of the effect this could have on Veronica. She must be hounded by his fan accounts. Oh shit. 

“Its fine, I just might have to do some cover up according to my PR guy, but I’m more worried about my fan accounts harassing you”    
  


“I can have the Lodge fashion PR team work it out with you? And I am no stranger to fan accounts harassing me Archie.” 

He politely declines the PR offer. Someone might actually tell Veronica about how he has to publicly deny Haylie, and that's a whole other problem he doesn't want to deal with right now. 

He texts her Reggies Instagram name @ReggieTheMan_tle. 

\--

Veronica hangs up on Archie and laughs. Ronnie? She  _ used _ to hear that nickname all the time from her mother, but coming from him it felt weird. But then again, Archies a bit weird. It's in a good way though. In the dumb puppy way. 

She genuinely feels bad for putting Archie in this position. She knows what it is like to be on the receiving end of bad press, and she knows this is going to be hard for him to come back from- let's hope he has a good PR team. How was she supposed to know his fans would recognise him from the tiny bit of red hair that they could see? 

She's taken from her thoughts by Haylies soft whimpering. Its the first sign before full-out crying, and shes trying to avoid that today. She left Haylie sitting on the couch, with her favourite cartoon, so that she could try and finish these final sketches for her new line. They’re due today at 5, which leaves her under an hour to finish them. She doesn't think she can get them done. She had an inkling that she wouldn’t be able to finish when Haylie woke up this morning extra warm and clingy. It's probably a head cold, and nothing she needs to worry about, but it probably feels like the end of the world to Haylie. She just hopes that Cheryl is tired today and decides to go home instead of dropping by for the sketches. 

Reluctantly, she gets up from her desk and goes over to Haylie, and lifts her up. 

“Couldn’t let me spend ten minutes alone huh?” 

Haylie digs her head into Veronicas chest, and any annoyance Veronica was feeling just melts away. She loves Haylie with every fibre of her being, but Veronica sometimes wishes that she could just have her own time. She had Haylie at 24, when she should’ve been fresh out of college, and partying. She resents not being able to do that, but she never ever resents Haylie. But she still finds it hard sometimes, when Haylie demands a lot from her, not to get annoyed. Especially when she just wants to finish her work, and Haylie won’t let her. 

“Now, can we please let mommy work for 20 minutes?” She says, stroking Haylies back to comfort her.

Haylie grumbles at the idea of being put down, so Veronica ends up sitting at her desk, Haylie in lap, trying to finish these sketches. Mostly, she's trying to keep Haylie’s hands away. She refuses to not finish these sketches though, she knows that all of her fashion lines get reviewed by her parents, and while she may not give a damn about them, she will never miss a deadline. That would scream to her parents that she isn’t coping, and they wouldn’t miss a chance to say I told you so, even if they haven't spoken to her in nearly two year. She still feels that she needs to impress them and it sucks. She just wants to be free of them. 

Honestly, she can’t believe they've cut her off like this. She's always known they were cold people, but she didn’t think they could be that way to her. She was always treated just above a business partner, so she never expected them to treat her like one. She remembers that day so clearly. She remembers thinking they’d love and support her, and walking out wondering how they could hate her so quickly. How quickly the love and adoration had drained from their faces, and was replaced with cold anger. 

Veronica’s got 5 dress designs due this week, and she has only finished 3 of them. She just needs to finish 4, and she can beg Cheryl to give her an extension. She's restarted this drawing 4 times now, Haylie keeps knocking her and ruining her drawing. 

Veronica tells Haylie that she needs to finish and then slides Haylie off her lap, onto the carpet.  Haylie, who spends a moment looking around, then promptly breaks into howls. Surprisingly, over Haylie’s sudden howling, she can hear the door. 

Cheryl always has impeccable timing. 

\--

“Oh. You've got the little spawn with you” Cheryl says, in that matter of fact way she says everything. 

“Leave her alone Cheryl, she's sick” She warns and then continues, “I've only finished 3 and a half of the dresses, can you hold her for a sec and I’ll finish them for you” 

“I’m only agreeing, because she is half Archie Andrews” 

Veronica sighs, she knew Cheryl would take that dig at her.  

“Can we not talk about that right now?” 

“Fine.” 

There's a few moments of comfortable silence between them. Believe it or not, but Veronica and Cheryl are close. Not nearly as close as Betty and Veronica, but close nonetheless. They used to be best friends in high school, the two top bitches at Spence, but oh - how the tides have changed. 

“Cheryl, I can’t focus when you’re holding my baby like its a dog”   
  


“Well,  _ she  _ coughed on me!” 

“Oh shit, did she?” There goes the head cold theory. Looks like tomorrow is going to be spent in the doctor's office. It's much better than the meetings she actually had planned. And yeah, she knows it sounds crazy, taking your kid to the doctor when they've only been sick for a day, but its her kid and shes  _ worried  _ alright? 

“Yes. Right onto my expensive dress” 

She can’t help but laugh out loud at that one. Cheryl can be absolutely ridiculous sometimes. 

“Whatever V” She struts over to Veronicas desks and leans on it “So I heard a little rumour that Hiram and Hermione are inviting you for thanksgiving” 

“Please tell me you are joking Cher” 

“Not one bit. This isn't the actual invite obviously, but I’d expect one from them soon” 

Oh god. She hopes that the invite gets ‘lost’. She can’t handle seeing her parents, but she also can't handle the idea of saying no and breaking the tiny connection they have left. They have an unspoken agreement- We won't speak to you, but you are still our daughter so we won’t cut you off. 

If Veronica happened to say no to the invite, that would be like breaking the little agreement, and cutting off the olive branch they are extending. But, she doesn't know if she can see them without being reminded of that day. She’ll be reminded of all the pain and sadness, and anger. 

She just crosses her fingers and hopes they get scared and don't actually ask her. 

“Now that I’ve finished, you can take these designs back to them,” She shuffles the papers together, and shoves them into a large file  “and kindly remind them that I’d hate that idea” 

“I’ll pass it onto dearest mother and father” She holds out Haylie infront of her “And I’ll pass this back to you” 

“You’ll join us on friday for shopping right?” 

“You know I wouldn’t miss an opportunity to shop” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I couldn't really get into Veronica's headspace. Please tell me its not terrible?


	7. Chapter 7

The good thing about bringing Cheryl shopping is that she always ends up spending the most and you don’t feel bad about your purchases. The bad thing is that she always rubs Betty the wrong way. Today, Cheryls thrown two digs at Jughead, and Betty hasn’t fought back, yet. 

Oh wait, three digs now. Change the subject Veronica, use those people skills before Betty decides to piss off Cheryl. Really, she should be trying for nobody to be pissed, but a pissed off Betty is  _ so _ much easier to deal with than a pissed off Cheryl. 

The only topic she can think about is Reggie. She begins by asking what they think of asians. Of course, Cheryl's first question is whether she means asian guys or girls.

“Oh course she means guys Cheryl.” Betty scoffs towards her.

“That's a very heteronormative way to look at it Betty.” Cheryl says, giving her a very pointed stare. “Plus, I know some girls from Spence that would say otherwise.... about Veronica.” 

Betty looks a bit scandalised as blush creeps up her cheeks. The Riverdale never really left that one. 

“Cher! Stop trying to scare Betty!” She smiles at Betty to reassure her. “However, it is about a guy this time. Archie’s friend Reggie, wants my number. Calls me a ‘hottie’. Normally I wouldn’t even consider a guy like that, but look at his arms!” She holds up a picture on her phone as evidence. 

Both Betty and Cheryl crowd closer to her to see the picture, and it reminds her of a group of gossiping schoolgirls.

“Hot, yes. But is he Veronica Lodge worthy?” Cheryl says. 

“Well I’ve been single, for long enough now. It's about time I get back into dating” She pauses. “Or one night stands” 

She makes a point to wink at Betty after that one. Her boyfriend started as a one night stand, but Jughead didn’t have the shame after it, and pursued Betty. It’s a weird tactic, but it did work out for him though. Jugheads a weird kid though. 

Betty shrugs her shoulders. “One date couldn’t hurt V. For all you know, he might end up being like Juggie!” 

“No offence, but I hope not.” Veronica articulated. 

“If this ‘date’ is happening now, we need to make a visit to victoria's secret!” Cheryl giggles, strutting off towards it. 

“I suppose it is?” Veronica questions. 

“Well I’m not going to try telling Cheryl otherwise” Betty says, gesturing towards cheryl. “And I'm sure jug would love it if I bought some  _ things  _ from victoria's secret” 

She allows Cheryl to shove her into a dressing room and try on (way too many) outfits. Apparently red is the color of choice, and they find a dress (purple) to match. She takes the train over to Archie's to pick up Haylie, before heading home, Betty in tow. Archie only makes one snide comment about the amount of bags she's carrying, and she makes one back about how she's surprised Haylies still in one piece. 

He’s actually been really good with her. The first couple of times he was around her it was awkward, but he's really warmed up to her. She was still nervous about leaving her alone with him today though, and the 200 texts she sent to him proves that. But he's a good dad, a little bit goofy, but its charming. Too charming. That’s part of the reason why she agreed to go on a date with Reggie. Maybe then she can ignore the little flutters her stomach does when she sees him do anything with Haylie, or when he smiles at her in that childish way. 

\---

Veronica’s strutting down the hall, in a heated discussion about how bad the Matchlorette final was, when she notices the man leaning against her door frame, on his phone. He’s turned away from her, so she doesn't recognise him, but if she had in that moment, she would’ve run away.

He hears the clicking of her heels, and looks up at her. This is the moment she recognises him. Its her father. Her whole body freezes and she feels the urge to run. 

“Veronica! Wait!” He reaches out towards her “Please.” 

He cannot be here. This cannot be happening. She doesn't want to see him. Her skin is itching to know what he wants though. It overpowers the little voice telling her to run.

“What to do you want.” She snaps, already wanting the conversation over. She was going to say father, but he doesn't deserve that title. 

“Your mother and I have realised the error of our ways, and we would like to invite you to thanksgiving with us. Your daughter is included in that invitation too” He says it sharp and practiced, only saying what is required and nothing more. It’s the Lodge way of saying things. 

She expected this, but she's still surprised. Cheryl did warn her a few days ago. But she doesn't understand why. Why are they bothering now, Why do they still pretend to care? She also feels raw anger, and a lot of it. They hurt her so much, and they think that she will just fall at their feet. Fuck that.  They cut her off, shut her out, and now its her chance to do it back to them.

“No thank you.” She coldly says, in her ‘business’ voice. That's all he is. Her boss. 

“Veronica, please.” He begs. “I am very sorry for how we treated you.”

He seems genuine she supposes. She could never tell the difference between the fake him for business partners and the genuine, so she can’t trust those feelings. 

“Why do you even care all of a sudden?” She bites, settling into a harsh look. 

“I have always cared” 

“Yeah, because there's so much evidence of that” She laughs, letting the sarcasm sting. 

“Do you really think that other fashion designers fresh out of college get paid as much as you do? Haven’t you ever wondered why your rent hasn't gone up, even though this area is becoming popular? We have always cared, even when we didn't agree with your decisions, just from the shadows” 

She honestly had never considered those. Her pay isn't terrible, but she was used to a much higher income when she was freeloading off her parents. They can’t just throw money at her and expect it to fix problems. It may have when she was 15, but designer brands don’t sway her now. It’s such a childish way to fix problems, and it just makes all the problems build up. She’s not just hurt over them cutting her out like a mutual friend, it triggered all the painful things they've done to her. It all built up and burst like a dam.  

“I still needed you, and you two abandoned me” Her voice almost breaks, and it's embarrassing. Why cant she just do that cold controlled thing her mother does? 

“I can’t change the past, as much as I wish to. I know what I did was wrong. I’m sorry for leaving you when you needed us. I want to be here for you now. I wish I could go back and change the past, not let you walk out of that house alone. But I can’t, and it's the biggest regret I have. Please let me fix this.” 

“I will consider it.” She knows she's being curt. 

“I have said all I can Veronica. It's up to you to find it in you to forgive me” 

“Bye.” She says, robotic and cold. 

He looks at Haylie in her arms.    


“Is this her? Its Holly or Haylie right?” 

“Haylie.” She corrects, rudely. 

“Can I hold her?” 

He comes close, to try and hold her. Veronica just twists so Haylie is away from him. 

“I think it's best you leave now” 

The look on her father's face is so broken. What little hope that was in his eyes is ripped from them. She feels bad but reminds herself that he has to live with his choices. She struts past him and into her apartment, dropping her bags. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! 
> 
> sidenote- I think there's about 10 chapters left! before you get worried, reggie and veronica and not endgame in this story, sorry for any of you that are here for that..


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This ones short, but this was supposed to be a part of the last chapter. I thought about dragging it out, but naaah.

Reggie is sweet, there's no doubt about that. She's running late when he arrives, and he just patiently sits and waits, even taking Haylie off her when she gets too much. He doesn't want to hear her apologies about not already dropping Haylie off with Betty and Jughead (She doesn't trust Archie with her overnight, just yet.), just drives her there and waits while she says goodbye. 

“Well, I vote we start the date from this point on.” Reggie states. 

“I agree,” She's about to apologise when he spins around. 

“Woah, you look hot!” He says, eyes roaming up and down her body. “I’m Reggie, and I would very much like to take you out tonight, so you free?” 

“Nice to meet you Reggie.” She loops her arm through his “So, where are we going?” 

“I have picked out a lovely little bistro I hope you will like” 

Reggie smiles, and its very charming. It's the complete opposite to what Archie told her he was like. It seems like Archie only told her bad things. That Reggies immature, mean, irresponsible, and a womanizer. Reggie so far has been the complete opposite. She's hoping that this charming act isn’t just to get her to take him home tonight. 

It turns out he really did mean little when talking about the bistro. Its tiny, but charming. It's got a dark ambience, almost grungy, but not quite. Its classed up grunge. They sit at a nice table in the window, talking, and drinking. 

“Yeah, Archies my boy. He's always had talent, even way back in highschool. I always knew he’d get big, even before he believed in himself.” 

Veronicas not really listening. She's watching his arms as he makes a lot of hand gestures. It's incredibly distracting. 

“But enough about me, what do you think of Archie?” It takes her a second to meet his eyes, and he's got a little smirk on his face like he caught her. He did really, there's practically drool coming out of her mouth. 

She wants to talk about how she thinks Archie is sweet, and caring, and how he has a smile that could light up the world, but shes supposed to be on a date to forget all that. She says whats expected instead.

“Archie is great. He’s a good dad to Haylie” 

“How is it having a kid?” He takes a casual sip of his beer. 

“Crazy. I love her so much, but it can be hard. I feel like my life is so different to all of my friends. I’m up at 2 am because she's crying and they’re up at 2am because they’re still partying” 

“That sucks. But you’ve got family to help so that must make it easier.” 

“Not really.” 

“Oh.” He says softly. “That must be hard then.” 

She takes a big gulp of her wine. 

After that awkward moment, conversation flows freely. They find out they have a lot in common, they’re both only children, they both come from rich families, and they both like chocolate shakes. They drink, and smile, and its turning out to be a very good night for Veronica. She really needed this, Reggie makes her forget all her troubles. 

After the meal- and a dessert she did not need, they stroll the streets, no destination in mind, and its nice. They talk about life, love, and their futures. 

“I dunno, I can never imagine what I would be like in the future? I always thought I’d be a Barney Stinson, never settling down, but now I feel like I want the opposite, the wife and the white picket fence, the kids running around and screaming and stuff. Its weird.” 

“I always thought I’d be single, too involved in my own career to stop and settle. But here I am, no longer princess of Lodge industries, single but has a child. The future never really turns out how we want it does it?” 

“I guess so, but the future doesn't look so bad if you’re in it” 

Veronica blushes and smiles at him. It sounds like a very likely future. After tonight, she really likes Reggie, and she even wants to go on another date with him. When the date winds up, she wants to invite him in, but decides against it- she wants to date him again, and shes not sure she feels comfortable exposing her body to someone right now. Shes got stretch marks, and her stomach doesn't have the same amount of definition it used to. She never used to be self-conscious, but she feels engulfed in it when she thinks about inviting him in. 

“Can I come in? You know, have a cup of coffee?” He tries to be casual, leaning against the doorframe. 

“Maybe next time?” She says, trying not to hurt his feelings. “I’m rather excited to sleep in, my human alarm clock isnt’t here” 

It isn’t even a bullshit excuse to make him feel better. Shes genuinely excited to sleep in past 7 o’clock. She feels old thinking about it.

“Dont fret. But, does that mean theres going to be another time?” 

“Only if you ask” 

“Yes! Mantle does it again!” He does a little jump dance. “I’ll see you soon then?” 

She pecks a kiss on his cheek, and says goodbye. Then she gets into her pyjamas, double checks with Betty to check if Haylies okay, and sleep comes easy. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Special shoutout to undercoverose, I see you commenting every chapter and thank you! it means alot!


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is a filler, and I dont think its really up to my normal standard, but I couldn't keep trying to fix it forever...

Every single time Veronica leaves Haylie with him, he gets a full blown lecture.    


“Make sure that she sleep for at least 2 and a half hours, but if she's still cranky after being awake for about half an hour, put her back to sleep. I’ve packed her food, the purple containers she needs to eat today, the green ones are for if she's still hung-” 

“Ronnie!” He says, trying to get her attention. And yes, he's just owning that nickname now. “Veronica! I know all of this, you tell me every time!” 

“Sorry” She says, brushing her hair behind her shoulder. “I got invited to a Lodge industries shareholders meeting and I’m a bit stressed, Im forgetting everything!” 

“I take it thats something big then?” 

“It is. Most of the shareholders are my family, and my father is there. That is why I must go now, I cannot be late.”

She doesn't really want to go to this meeting, she's sure it's another attempt by her father to ‘make things right’. She straightens her skirt, and leaves Archie alone with Haylie.\

“Well its just you and me now kiddo” Archie jokes. 

Haylie just stares at him, chewing on her pacifier. 

“Too early to talk? I’m feeling the same” 

He carries her around, telling her in depth the process of making his morning coffee as he does it. She doesn't seem very interested in it, but she does seem very interested in trying to drink his coffee. 

He doesn't mind just chilling with Haylie, its kinda cool. It still freaks him out how Haylie is half of him. He can never see it in her, Haylie is basically a carbon copy of Veronica, all dark hair, dark eyes and full sass. He feels like he really knows her now, as much as one can know a one year old. He can sometimes tell when she's about to cry, and he knows that she likes peek a boo more than hide and seek. However, he still never knows what to do with her when she's around. What do you do with a baby? He once spent hours watching kids tv with her, but that was too mind numbing for even him. 

They end up on the couch, Haylie sitting on his shoulder, (supported by the couch so dont freak out) just drinking, (Coffee for him, water for haylie) fingers strewn across his guitar, picking at strings randomly. The closer his cup gets to empty, the closer the strums gets to a melody. 

His phone buzzes, and its Reggie, asking if he can come over. Archie says sure, but reminds Reggie that he's got Haylie for the day today. 

\----

“Check it out! I got a baby sized football! Now your kid can get that football scholarship you never took!” 

“I’m not gonna force her into anything that she doesn't want to do!” 

Reggie just ignores him and talks to Haylie.    


“Do you want to go to the park?” 

Haylie perks up, and says something that kind of sounds like yes. Shes getting alot better at speaking, and Archies glad he didnt have to try and work out what she wants before she could speak. 

Archie and Reggie wander down to the nearest park- which takes them a while to find - with Haylie following slowly. 

They get there, eventually, and Archie hands her the little ball, runs a little way away, and yells for her to throw it. In true one-year-old fashion, Haylie doesn't understand, and just tries to stick the ball in her mouth. 

“I’ll help her bro!” Reggie tugs the ball out of Haylies mouth and shows her how to throw it. 

Haylie attempts to copy him, but when she goes to throw, she falls over into the mud. 

“Shit!” Archie swears, sprinting over to lift her out of the mud. Haylie is covered from head to toe in mud. Worst of all, she goes back to eating the ball, mud and all. 

“Gross! Stop her from eating that bro!” 

Archie grabs the ball from Haylie, to her distaste, and tries to figure out where he can wash the mud off it. He looks around, trying to find something, there's a chain link fence, some non-muddy grass, and Reggies shirt. Shit, he should've brought some wipes or something. He decides to just use his own shirt, his own very expensive shirt. 

He hands the ball back to Haylie, and she weakly attempts to throw it. It flops over into the mud. 

“She sucks at football.” Captain obvious (reggie) says. 

“Were you good at football when you were a baby?” 

“You know I was, I practically came out of the womb able to play!” 

“Whatever Reggie” Archie jokes, dramatically turning away from him for effect. 

\--- 

Worn out and covered in mud, the three of them head back. He doesn't know how, but Haylies still a ball full of energy and the moment shes put down, runs around spreading mud everywhere. He says fuck it, pulls off her muddy clothes and just lets her run around in a diaper while he has a shower. 

When he gets back, Haylies passed out, half sprawled out on the couch. He lifts her legs so shes not sleeping uncomfortably, and turns on the TV. Theres alot of downtime when he looks after the baby, times where he has to be quiet and can't do much. He wonders how house wives dont get bored. He takes the time to reply to Veronicas 10 texts asking if they're okay. He simply sends her back a picture of Haylie passed out. 

Of course, she immediately asks where her clothes went, and Archie snaps a pic of the muddy pile. Veronica sends him a long list of how to wash them, which includes something called fabric conditioner which he knows he doesn't have.\

She asks him if she can come pick up Haylie early. He wants to say no, he likes to spend time with her alone, but hes not sure if he can actually say that yet. Turns out, hes glad he said yes. 

Veronica arrives at the perfect time, when hes running out of ways to try and stop Haylie crying. Hes not used to dealing with this. He can do when shes happy, or even when she was sick, but when she cries he wants to cry, and he is not a crier. (He is, really) 

“Please help me!” He pleads to her when he opens the door. 

In the natural graceful way that Veronica seems to do everything, she slips in the door, taking Haylie off him and mutters comforting things to her. It feels intimate watching this moment, between mother and daughter. 

“Has she eaten?” 

“Uh, no. I was gonna feed her after she woke up but this happened and I didn’t really get a chance” 

“She's probably hungry then” She digs through her baby bag, and pulls out a small purple container with grapes. 

“How’d the meeting go?” He asks, trying to be polite. 

“Worse than I thought it would go. And I thought it would go pretty badly” 

“What happened?” 

“Well, while I thought I would only have to face my father asking me to come to thanksgiving, he knew that I would reject him, so he invited my abuelita” She thinks about how archie wont know what that means “which means grandmother, and I can’t tell my grandmother no. So now I have to go to this shitty thanksgiving where I’ll have to pretend that my parents didn’t abandon me, and play the part of perfect daughter.” She sighs heavily 

“Why dont you just not go?” 

“My abuelita basically guilt tripped me by saying how she hadn't met her great granddaughter and how I’m her favourite grandchild but she hasn't seen me in months” 

“So you really have to go then, that sucks!” 

“Maybe I’ll be able to avoid my parents, the Lodge thanksgiving is quite a large event” 

Archie leans over and covers Veronicas hand with his own.    


“I’m sure it will go well Ronnie” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> any feedback is appreciated!


	10. Chapter 10

Veronica bought a very expensive outfit for Haylie to wear today. She has to impress her family, and Haylie looks absolutely adorable in it. And, the purple dress she bought for Haylie matches her own purple dress she's wearing today. 

She begrudgingly pulls on her boots, and helps Haylie into her coat. She's actually quite excited to see her abuelita, and all her cousins. She hasn't seen any of them in 2 years, and she's excited to catch up with all of them. They're her family, and she misses them. 

She's just mad that to see them, she has to see her parents.

Veronica decides to walk to her parents house. It's only about 7 blocks from her apartment, and it should be far enough to tire Haylie out. She's been very energetic all day, and if Veronica lets her bounce around her parents house, something very expensive is bound to be broken. 

It takes about 2 blocks before Haylie gets too tired and whines until she's carried. 

\---

The first person to greet her is her abuletia, giving her a huge hug. 

“Veronica! I’m so glad you came! I wasnt sure you would!” 

She blushes and smiles. “It’s good to see you Abuletia” 

“Is this your little troublemaker?” She jokes, eyes wandering to Haylie. 

“Yeah. Abuletia, this is Haylie, Haylie, this is my abuelita.” 

“She’s so adorable Veronica” She makes a face at the baby, and she can now see her mother, eagerly waiting on the other side of the foyer. She makes eye contact with her mother, and knows now that she has to talk to her. 

“Abuelita, will you hold her for a second?” She says, not looking away from her mother. Abuelita follows her eyeline and quickly nods in agreement, taking Haylie into her arms.   


“She is very excited to see you, go easy on her” 

“I might try” She mutters, heading towards her mother. 

Her mother hugs her, which she doesn't return.

“It's nice to see you Ronnie” 

“I'm glad to see  _ some  _ of the family here” 

Her mother drags her into the guest room. 

“Mom! What a-“ 

Her sentence falls short when she sees the tears in her mothers eyes. 

“I’m so sorry for what we did to you Ronnie. You needed us, and we just ignored you. Your father kept telling me it was the right thing to do but I wish I had just grown a spine and told him it wasn't.” Veronicas own eyes start tearing up. “I’m so sorry Veronica, I should’ve been there for you, you were all alone” She's definitely crying now. “If you’ll have me, I would love to be in your life now”    


She hugs her mom, properly this time. Its time she forgives her family, she cant stay mad at them forever. 

“I’m not fully forgiving you yet. You hurt me alot Mom, but I’ll let you be apart of my life again.” 

Her mom looks so happy.    
“I'll take anything mija” Her mom says “And that boy, the father, Archie, he’s a good looking choice”

She laughs, wiping the tears from her eyes. “He’s just the father Mom” 

“You can always change that” 

It's nice to know that her mother hasn't changed. 

“We should go back out before someone comes looking for us” 

Both of them check that their makeup isn’t ruined, and go back out to the party. The party looks a bit brighter to Veronica now. Her abuelita comes up to her.    


“Is everything all okay now?” Abuelita asks.

“Its on the way to okay” Veronica replies smiling at her mom. 

“Is this Haylie? Shes beautiful Ronnie!” Her mother beams.    


“Haylie, baby, this is  _ your  _ abuelita!” 

“Hi” Her mom says. 

She lifts Haylie from her Abuelita.    
“Say hi baby!” She coaxes and tries to show her that her mom isn't a scary person. 

“HI!” Haylie yells. 

“Very excitable arent we?”    


“She’s just full of energy today. I tried walking here to tire her out but clearly that didn’t work” 

“I may have given her some chocolate” abuelita says 

“It’s fine, I’ll just keep a closer eye on her” 

“You can always leave her with either of us Ronnie”  

“It’s fine really” She says, to reassure her abuelita who is looking quite apologetic. 

She heads off towards the bar. She needs something to drink so that she can cope with today. Also, she didn't really want to deal with her mother any longer. She knows her mother is going to pretend that everything is fine now, and she doesn't want to deal with that.  Hopefully, she can avoid her father the whole evening. 

\---- 

She doesn't understand how, but every thanksgiving, without fail, she will eat more than the last. She doesn't physically understand where the food fits in her body. She lays on the floor with all of her cousins, groaning about how much they ate. 

The meal was a bit awkward. She sat with all of her cousins, obviously, but her father looked at her with this sad face. He’s the one that forced her to come here, and obviously he's not going to be on her good side after that. Her mom also nearly blew up at Haylie, after her sticky hands got all over Hermione's dress. Its almost like her mother forgot what kids are like.  But, nothing major happened, so Veronica thinks it was a successful meal. 

She’s leaning on the floor with her cousin, Abby. Abby is obsessed with Haylie, and keeps trying to get her attention, or trying to play with her. Abby building towers for her, but Haylies only interested in tearing them down. 

“I cannot believe you got to sleep with the archie andrews, and ended up with a cute kid from it” Her cousin, Abby says “All I ended up with is Matt”    
She gestures to her boyfriend on the couch above her.    


“Love you too babe” Matt quips. 

She knows Abby doesn't mean what she said in a harsh way. Abby and Veronica are quite close, really. As an only child, her cousins basically became her siblings, and Abby is the one shes closest to. 

“She's just jealous she hasn't slept with any famous people Matt” She teases right back. 

“Seriously! Your kid is so cute it makes me want one of my own!” 

“You’re welcome to come and take mine anytime, I always want a break” To almost back up her point, Haylie takes a swipe at the tower, causing blocks to rain down on Veronica. 

“I worship anything that has Archie Andrews attached to it” 

“Hes not  _ that  _ great you know..” 

“You would know though” She winks at Veronica 

“Well Abby, when a man and a women get very very drunk...” Veronica begins

“I know how that works!” 

“I’m going to tell your mom that!” She teases, pretending to get up. 

“I’m the same age as you!”

\---- 

After Veronica leaves the party, she realises just how much she missed her family. Not her father of course, but the rest of them. She really enjoyed being around them. She forgot how nice it was to have family. Yeah, Betty and Jughead are her family, but it's different with family who have literally known you since you were born. Plus, she's now got a whole horde of babysitters.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've hit a bit of a slump with this story... Like I know where it goes, but I dont have the words to fill in the between, you know? Anyway, I'm gonna keep powering through and hopefully the writing is okay.


	11. Chapter 11

Veronica enlists the help of Archie and Jughead to hang tinsel everywhere in the apartment. Every corner, every banister, even the edges of Haylie’s crib, are covered in color coded tinsel. It's the day of her annual christmas party, and everything must be perfect. 

  
Veronica Lodges parties have always been known. When she was a teenager, they were known for the free flowing alcohol, in a time when people couldn’t get it. When she was in college, they were known for being wild. Now, they're known for being picture perfect, carefully planned, extravagant parties. 

 

Last year, she almost didn't have a party, it was hard to plan with a 6 month old Haylie, and she had at least 2 mental breakdowns, but it was her most successful ever. 

 

She walks over to where Archie and Jughead are looking at the table, arguing over which knife goes where. 

 

“I swear! The big knife goes first!” 

 

“Don’t be a dumbass Archie! It's the small one that goes first!” 

 

“Actually, Jug, Archies right” Veronica interrupts.    
  


The most smug look grows on Archie’s face. “See told you!” 

 

She ignores their fight and strolls back into the living room, where Betty is kneeling, intently watching Haylie asleep on the couch. She sees Veronica and looks up, with a questioning look. 

 

“And you’re sure that this is normal?” 

 

“Trust me Betty, its normal.” She laughs “You’ll understand if you become a mother” 

 

“I’m not convinced, but I’ll take your word for it”

 

She picks up the napkins Betty folded and takes them over to the boys.    
  


“These go right in the centre of the plates, so there is no need for more arguments” 

 

“Sure Ronnie” Archie says, giving her that soft smile he seems to save for her. Its adorable. 

 

She finds herself thinking more and more about that smile everyday. Archies so genuine, and sweet. She can’t help but think of him. It doesn’t help that she sees him every other day for something Haylie related. Its normal to be thinking of your baby's father all the time, right? 

 

At least that is what Veronica is trying to convince herself. 

 

Once they’ve all finished setting up, they only get to sit down for 5 seconds before people start arriving. Friends of Veronica from all walks of life come, girls from her days at Spence, at college, and even some of the girls from Haylie’s toddler classes. 

 

Cheryl’s the first to arrive, of course, and immediately tries to rearrange the decorations. 

 

“Cher! They look fine!” Betty scolds her. “Jughead and Archie worked hard on them!” 

 

“Archie is here?” Cheryl says, looking around.  “Veronica! You’ll have to introduce me!” 

 

Something about that just annoys her. Cheryl can’t date Archie, it's a morally wrong movement, Archie is  _ her _ kids father. 

 

She busies herself wiping down benches so she doesn't have to answer.  

 

“Cheryl, calm down, he has a girlfriend.” Betty says, noticing Veronicas aversion to the question, and covering for her.

 

“Where are the others anyways? I want to show Haylie the new shoes I bought her!” Cheryl chirps, unaware of the tension in the room. 

 

“Archiekins should be on the balcony with her” Veronica answers.

 

Cheryl turns on her heel and struts towards the balcony. The moment she's out of sight, Betty turns and stares at her. 

 

“Archiekins? Arent nicknames supposed to be shorter than the real name?” Betty jokes. 

 

“Its shorter than Archibald” Veronica corrects. 

 

“Is that his actual full name? It's such an old name!” 

 

“Says Elizabeth!” 

 

“It's still weird to hear you use a nickname for him” 

 

“It just slipped out” 

 

“It’s cute, its like you two are a couple! Oh Ronnie! Oh Archiekins!” She mocks, dramatic pauses between. 

 

“We aren’t like that! Number one we aren't a couple, number two I don't speak like that!” 

 

“Funny how number one was we aren't a couple” Betty teases. “You don’t like Archie, do you? I know you enjoyed going out with Reggie” 

 

“Do you think Haylie will want one of these cupcakes?” Veronica asks, changing the subject. She doesn't want to answer that question, or even get into trying to answer it. 

 

“So you do like him!” Betty exclaims.    
  


“No! Uh, possibly?” Veronica shrugs. She really hasn’t thought about it.

 

“What does possibly mean?” Betty inquires, inching closer to Veronica.

 

“It means, how much is a healthy amount to be thinking of your baby daddy?” 

 

“Not much I’m guessing?” 

 

“Well, I have not stopped thinking about his smile, and that nervous laugh he does when he doesn't know what to say, for two days now” 

 

“I think that counts as an unhealthy amount then” Betty assures, making it click in Veronica’s head. 

 

She says this new discovery out loud.“I think it counts as I like him” 

 

“Like as in a tiny crush, or like a lot?” 

 

“Like a lot” 

 

“He has a girlfriend” Betty says, resigned.

 

“I know.” She sighs. 

 

“What are you gonna do?” Betty prompts.

 

“Nothing, there’s nothing I can do” Veronica says, taking the cloth and hanging it on the oven.

 

\---

As much work as it is to throw a party, it’s all worth it once she sees everyone just having a good time.

 

Everyone is slightly drunk, and it makes for a warm Christmas feeling. She finishes topping up her eggnog (adding a little splash of alcohol) and heads back over to where she was talking to Skyler, a mom from Haylie’s toddler class. 

 

“It’s so adorable watching them play like that isn’t it?” Skyler nods in the direction of Haylie and Skyler's son, Mason.

 

The two of them sit opposite each other, taking turns to build a tower of blocks, and then letting the other break it. It’s adorable, watching the then wait excitedly while the other builds the tower. 

 

It’s quite funny, Skyler was the goth foster kid who happened to get knocked up in her pregnancy classes. Veronica took a liking to her when she told the instructor off for judging her parenting skills off her appearance. She’s changed a lot now, moved out to the suburbs, she manages a fashion store (Veronica actually owns the store, but don’t tell Skyler that) (it’s not Veronica’s fault Skyler didn’t realise the name is pearls in French) and she is the more amazing mom to Mason. It’s really impressed Veronica and makes her strive to be a better mom every time she thinks of Skyler. 

 

Mason comes bounding over to Skyler.

 

“Mom! Juice!” He squeals.

 

“What do we say Mase?” 

 

“Please!” 

 

“He’s so much more talkative than Haylie!” 

 

“Honestly, treasure the time before she knows a lot of words, all Mase does now is demand!” 

 

“It would be nice to know what she wants, it’s still hard to decipher crying” Veronica jokes, grabbing out the juice and pouring it into a glass.

 

——

Later on, after everyone has gone and it’s just her, Betty, Jughead and Archie cleaning, she leaves Haylie on the kitchen bench with a cupcake while she quickly sweeps the kitchen. 

 

Haylie babbles excitedly about the cupcake, holding it out for Veronica to see. 

 

“Yeah baby, you can eat it! How exciting!” 

 

She looks back down and focuses on getting the dust into the pan, it always leaves that little line of dust when she moves it, and she wants all of the dust gone. 

 

She hears Haylie giggling in the background, and turns to see her, but she sees Haylie falling off the bench, headfirst. Her heart stops and she dives to catch her, but she makes it short. Haylie’s head hits the ground with a sound Veronica will never forget. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m so sorry about the cliffhanger, but I’m already 1/3 done with the next chapter so I won’t make you wait long to find out what happens.
> 
> Also, I realised that I made it onto andsmile’s master list! Holy shit! I’m very grateful! You can find the list [here ](http://andsmile.tumblr.com/post/171100681417/varchie-fanfiction-masterlist)
> 
> And thirdly, I'm doing a big ask me anything (About the fic, about me) for my birthday week (Which starts today in fact) so check out my [tumblr!](https://agentbadass-carter.tumblr.com/)


	12. Chapter 12

Next thing she knows, she’s picking up an unconscious Haylie, and screaming. Betty comes running and sees the scene, sliding down on her knees next to Veronica. Jughead arrives next, assessing the scene and calling 911. Archie comes sprinting, dropping to his knees with a deafening crack, eyes pleading for Veronica to explain.

Everything else is a blur to Veronica, she remembers riding in an ambulance to the hospital, and being seperated from Haylie when all the fibers of her being ache for her to be close to Haylie. She remembers crying in one of the boys chests, she thinks it was Archie. She remembers the blood on her hand, and Betty helping her wash it off. She vividly remembers the doctor saying that Haylie’s okay, it’s a concussion and she can go see Haylie now.

Her baby looks so tiny in the hospital bed, wires engulfing her entire body. She rushes to her side, taking her tiny hand and stroking it. They all sit there, in that tiny hospital room, in silence, not knowing what to say. At some point, when Jughead realises that Betty is asleep on his shoulder, the two of them leave, promising to be back as soon as they wake up.

She doesn’t look at Archie. She feels like she failed him. He trusted her to protect their baby and now Haylies in hospital. She was so wary of trusting him with Haylie, but she’s the one who hurt her.

She knows this entire thing is her fault. She shouldn’t have left Haylie on the bench, she should have dragged her high chair back to the kitchen. She should have been watching instead of trying sweep, it could’ve waited. She could have done a million other things, why did she do the things that made Haylie get hurt? Maybe she should give Haylie to Archie. Archie’s never gotten Haylie a concussion, but she has.

She gently looks at Archie and realises he was watching her.

“Ronnie, what happened?”

She wants to just look away and not answer him. She can't do that to him though.

“I left her sitting on the bench with a cupcake, I thought she’d be fine because she was eating. But she wasn’t.” She takes a breath and starts pacing. “I heard her laugh and when I looked I saw her falling and I tried, I went to catch her and I wasn’t fast enough! Why wasn’t I fast enough! Couldn’t I have looked faster! Couldn’t I have been a better mother!”  

Archie grabs her face with his hands.

“Veronica, you couldn’t have done anything to change what happened. But Haylie’s okay now, and that’s what matters.”

She cuts him off. “But I could’ve! I shouldn’t have left her on the bench, I should’ve used her high chair! How could I be so irresponsible!”

Veronica keeps ranting on, and Archie doesn’t know how to shut her up. He does the only thing he knows, and kisses her.

The first thing Veronica feels is his soft lips, which is weird for a guy. Then she feels fireworks, and it’s amazing. Then, she remembers Archie has a girlfriend, and shoves him away.

“You have a girlfriend!”

“I’m sorry! I just didn’t know how to make you stop doing that, and I’ve kinda wanted to do that for a while”

“It’s cheating!”

“I didn’t mean to!”

“This is too much. I think you need to go Archie.”

He nods, grabbing his jacket.

“Please let me know when she wakes up. And I’ll be back in the morning.”

She watches him slip out of the door, her mind swirling.

She wonders if that actually just happened. She realises that yes, she did just kiss Archie Andrews, and yes that means that he likes her back. But every time she thinks about Sophia, she feels sick. She can’t believe she helped him cheat!

Veronica is feeling so much at once, she’s feeling anxious, worried, elated, dirty, tricked, and a multitude of other things she can’t name. She feels bile rising up her throat, and rushes to the bathroom. Honestly, she feels better after throwing up. It’s like she’s thrown up all the gross bad feelings and she can pretend everything’s okay now.

She goes back to sitting next to Haylie, waiting for her to wake up, and the hours tick by. Her head inches closer and closer to the bed, until she falls asleep, drool already pouring out of her mouth.

That's how Betty finds her at 8am the next morning, right when visiting hours start.

“V! You’re drooling, and I know you don’t want Juggie to see you like this!” Betty says, gently trying to rouse her.

Veronica shoots up like a deer in headlights. “Huh?” She groans, wiping drool off her mouth. She looks down at her sleeve. “Gross.”

Betty hums in acknowledgment. “I bought clothes and breakfast!” She waves the McDonald’s bag.

“I hope there’s a whole other bag for Jughead”

“Don’t worry, there is, but he’s gonna strive any second and you do like to keep up appearances V” Betty shoves a makeup bag into Veronica’s bag.

In the bathroom, Veronica looks at herself in the mirror. She can see the mascara streaks down her cheeks, and the place where her makeup got rubbed off from the bed. Her face is puffy, and she looks like shit. Feels like it too.

She methodically takes off her makeup and reapplies it, making sure to add extra concealer around her eyes. She finger brushes her dark curls, and feels a bit more ready to face the world.

She heads back into the hospital room.

“Ah Veronica! Looking much different from yesterday I see!”

“Juggie!” Betty hisses

Veronica just goes and hugs Jughead. She knows what he means, he’s glad that she’s feeling better from yesterday. It’s not some snide remark about her looks.

She grabs a bagel from the bag, and it tastes like heaven. She hasn’t eaten in over 12 hours, and she’s only just realising she’s hungry.

She sits down next to Haylie, savouring her bagel.

Of course, Haylie starts showing signs of life when she’s only half done. Hunger forgotten in the excitement of seeing if her baby is actually okay, she tosses the bagel on the table and leans close.

It takes Haylie a few minutes of stirring to actually wake up, which are spent anxiously waiting.

Veronica strokes Haylie’s hair and she opens her eyes.

“Hi baby” Veronica says softly.

Haylie’s hand immediately go to her head, where the bandage is.

“Is it ouchie?” Haylie nods “awww baby, I’m sorry” Veronica says, kissing the bandage.

Haylie sees Betty and Jughead and starts moving towards them. Her movements are a bit jerky and slow, which makes Veronica worried.

Veronica gently brings Haylie back to where she was lying.

“You’ll get tangled up baby” she explains

“I’ll go ask the nurse if she can get rid of some of the wires” Jughead says, dashing off in that direction.

Haylie doesn’t seem to get that she can’t move far right now, and when Veronica corrects her again she bursts into tears.

“Baby, it’s okay, everything’s alright, don’t cry” Veronica says, stroking her hair again.

 “I know what’ll work!” Betty gleefully says, digging through the duffel she brought, and coming out with Haylie’s stuffed rabbit.

Veronica passes it to Haylie, who calms down pretty quickly.

 The nurse comes in and takes off the monitors, leaving only Haylie’s IV.

 “I told the doctor she’s awake, and he’ll come in soon to do some tests”

 “Thank you” Veronica politely says.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So they kissed... thoughts? 
> 
> Also, the question of whether Haylie is actually okay will be answered in the next chapter I promise!


End file.
